


Into a Better Horizon

by Lady Aconite (LadyAconiteWolfe)



Series: Fire Emblem Gen Week [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Childhood, Day 1, Family, Fluff, Gen, NG+, Time Loop, fegenweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-06 22:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20298634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAconiteWolfe/pseuds/Lady%20Aconite
Summary: Jeralt struggles to raise a child who doesn't even properly act like a child. He supposes things could be worse.





	Into a Better Horizon

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Like Cobalt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20178814) by [WitchDrug](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchDrug/pseuds/WitchDrug). 

> Gen Week Day 1: Horizon/Ride

Raising Byleth had been the epitome of pain. In all his years as a mercenary, nothing had ever challenged him more. Jeralt had pride in his combat skills, but this was one kind of fight he didn't know how to win. Child rearing was something he planned on learning from his wife before the tragedy that was her death. Sure he had an entire mercenary company to help him, but there's only so much a bunch of gruff and tumble mercenaries can do when it comes to raising a child. He did the best he could with the friends he trusted most. Still though. It had been a pain, especially early on.

Byleth had almost seemed to make certain it would be a pain. 

She didn't cry like normal children, she didn't throw tantrums or even really laugh. She cried plenty as a baby but after that she just seemed to stop, her personality shifting almost to an adult over night. She just existed. Which made it hard to tell exactly what she was thinking. Occasionally it made it hard on Jeralt to determine if his child was even a person. She was... eccentric to say the very least. 

He doesn't regret what he did though. Burning down her nursery in the monastery and riding off into the dark of night. Long after the sun had set. He rode off into a darkening world knowing nothing of what the future might hold for him or the child he chose to protect. He doesn't regret taking her as far away from Rhea as he possibly could and starting up a company of mercenaries just like the old days. He doesn't regret it for a single moment.

But as strong as he pretends to be sometimes the future scares him. Is Byleth happy? Will she ever be happy? Is something wrong with her? Is it his fault? Is it Rhea's? That last question undeniably causes a bubble of anger in his chest. There's no question that Rhea did something to her, if the lack of a heartbeat is any indication. She's healthy, her pulse is good, but there's something quite obviously different about Byleth. Jeralt doesn't want to call it wrong because this is still his child, but Rhea did something and he still doesn't know what. 

If this later comes back to make Byleth suffer as an adult, he's blaming her. The woman he thought to be his friend. In those days after Byleth's birth it felt like he didn't even know her anymore. He still shivers when he thinks about the way she looked at Byleth. 

He was just about to put the thoughts from his mind when he felt a curious tugging on his pant leg. Turning his gaze downwards, he takes note of aforementioned child. Her hair was an absolute mess, leaving Jeralt to wonder what in the name of the Goddess she'd even been doing. Were those leaves trapped against her clothes or mud? In the late fall it was hard to tell the difference. "What's wrong kiddo?" He asked as the little girl looked up at him.

"Are you going into town again?" Her voice was remarkably quiet for a... well, he didn't know the current year so he didn't very well know her age but she couldn't be more than 10. Not to mention she was rather articulate as well. Goddess knows how all things considered about him and his mercenaries. 

"Yeah, is there something you wanted me to grab you?" He asks. It's not unheard of for Byleth to make requests for things like sweets and daggers. At least one of those was a normal desire for a child. The other... well, it was better he bought her one that he could dull down than let her run around puppy dog eyeing the members of his company into buying her something that's actually dangerous. The dull daggers usually brought a pout to those pretty little features, but better she pout than accidentally stab herself. 

Whenever he asked her why she wanted something like a dagger so badly she'd always just look at him with these determined eyes and say something along the lines of _'To protect those I care about' _with the kind of determination that generally a child shouldn't have. Jeralt could still remember something one his mercenaries had told him when she was still a babe. 

She acts like someone who's done this before and isn't happy to be back. 

That was never more evident than when she asked for weapons and begged Jeralt to teach her how to fight. It was disconcerting to say the very least, but at the same time it was hard to ignore the almost 100 yard stare she got when Jeralt asked who she cared about before swiftly receiving a hug or squeeze to the hand. Almost as if the kid was scared of losing him. An insane thought, but it was still enough to convince him to train her. 

Byleth quickly shook her head at the question. "I wanna go too," she said with a kind of resolve that nearly convinced Jeralt to crumble then and there. Upon further thought of exactly where he and his men would be going, he really didn't want to bring her. He knew it wouldn't be safe. They were getting a bounty contract from one of the local lords and Jeralt wasn't fond of the man. Lord Bartels he believed? But work was work. His child quickly mutter something under her breath. It sounded a bit like a name followed by a series of curses. Something that started with a Je, but Jeralt couldn't make out what it was. For all he knew it could have been his own name, but that seemed unlikely given the fact in all of her years Byleth had never called him by name. He questioned if she even knew it, let alone the weight it once held. 

The girl was quick to change tactics in a bid to get what she wanted. "But I wanna ride with papa," she said, making big sad puppy eyes as she gazed up at her father. He'd taken her for rides on Mercury, his steed, quite a few times. She always seemed more than happy to learn, but Jeralt wasn't dumb and wanting a ride obviously wasn't what she wanted right now. She wanted to get into town, though Goddess knew why. 

That being said, the look in her eyes kept making it harder and harder for Jeralt to say no. There was a subtle determination in her gaze, like there was something she absolutely had to do without question. And she wasn't going to yield. Jeralt knew that well enough. He'd seen the way his daughter could get at times, disappearing and reappearing having done Goddess knows what with the resolution of someone who knows exactly what they're doing. Like she'd already seen the future and knew exactly what she was doing, occasionally acting with a precision that quite literally scared Jeralt. 

Byleth also at times acted with such a chaotic disregard for her own well being it wouldn't shock him if she'd met the Goddess and wasn't impressed. So he isn't quite sure how much he should be trusting that resolution of hers. In spite of that, he finds it physically difficult to say no. 

"Fine," he eventually relented, picking her up. She gave a graceless noise much like a squawking bird, struggling against his grip before she was swung into Mercury's saddle. He pulled himself into the seat behind her with little difficulty and she instantly quiets and calms, pressing her back against him. 

"I wanna drive," she said, making a grabbing motion at the reigns. That's one request Jeralt has no intention of abiding. His daughter would probably train a wild wyvern if he taught her how to steer a mount too quickly, so he'd been teaching her how to direct Mercury in very small increments. He wants her old enough to properly swing a weapon before he starts putting her on the back of giant flying reptiles. Luckily she doesn't beg. She crosses her arms and pouts, sure, but she settles down in front of her father and allows him to spurn Mercury into movement. 

The horse, unperturbed by the child, marches forward. One might assume that someone as strange as Byleth would have difficulty with animals. The whole 'being scared of scary people and sensing bad intentions thing' that's led many a people to distrust those who animals despise. But no. Jeralt has yet to see an animal respond negatively to his child, quite the opposite. He's pretty sure Mercury is more loyal to Byleth than to Jeralt, and it's his damn horse! 

A quick whistle catches the attention of the other mercenaries he's planned to bring along with him. They quickly spurn their own horses into a rough formation and begin to follow along after their leader who wraps one arm protectively around the waist of the child in front of him. The child who, for the first time in her entire life, hums. He doesn't know the song. It sounds like some kind of nursery rhyme. But the important part is Byleth who's never showed an ounce of emotion _hums_. 

If Jeralt was more of an emotional man, he might have actually cried.

Maybe he couldn't always tell what Byleth was thinking. Maybe she was a bit odd at times and strange to a lot of other people... But when he looked to the horizon just over the crown of her pretty blue head, he could see the sunrise for the first time in a long time. Deep in her heart, he knew that she would be the one to lead them there. 

**Author's Note:**

> I should probably be editing the next chapter of Going in Circles, buuut. Family fluff. The idea for this fic was spurned by the wonderful story Like Cobalt which I stumbled across a couple days ago. If you have the free time please go check it out, it's way worth it.


End file.
